February 24

Hi-ya, Elpeeps! As many of you may have heard, KOG Games’ Grand Chase service will be closing soon. This is sad news for us and especially for the many players and fans of the well-loved forerunner of Elsword Online. In light of this, we also have some pretty big news. Starting tomorrow, we’re having a wonderful in-game event to welcome Grand Chasers who played in KOG Games’ NA server, so that they may find a fitting new home in Elrios. :-)

How do you, true-blue Elpeeps, figure in this? Well, you can be part of the welcoming committee. And of course, you get free goodies, too! Right off the bat, you get a Welcome Grand Chase title to help the cause. You also get to earn Link Up Coins that you can collect and exchange for awesome items—find out by visiting our special guest GC NPC, Rita. You might even get to craft free pets, full costume sets, a Skill Slot Change Medal, Ice Burners, Fossil Readers, and more. Sound good? Get in the game starting tomorrow for your chance at some of the most mind-blowing rewards!

Item Mall Goodies

Your standard Ice Burner system gets a new costume set. Glacial thaws out and makes way for Hamel Navy Officer. Awesome costume for sailing off to a sunshiny destination!

While there will be a special Cobo event for sampling a new service, the Nasod Welding Costume Suit and Accessories will be available at the Item Mall. Do these look familiar?  Tip: You can craft these, too!

Finally, are you missing some parts of old Ice Burner sets, particularly Archangel or El Search Party Officer? Good news! These legendary costumes return by way of Cobo Costume Boxes. These work in a similar fashion to Ice Burners, but even better—there’s a costume box version for each character, so any costume piece that comes out will be for the character you picked. Isn’t it great?!

Steam Greenlight

Steam Big Picture

About This Game

Elsword is a free-to-play, online action RPG that uses classic side-scrolling beat ‘em up gameplay mechanics and deep customization to bring a unique manga experience to life.

In Elsword, you star in your own comic book while experiencing all the excitement of a massively multiplayer online game. Get ready for fast-paced gameplay, stunning animation, and epic bosses. Whether conquering hordes of enemies in dungeon runs or showing off your skills in the PvP arena, Elsword is the most intense free-to-play action RPG to date.

Key Features

•Co-Op Gameplay - Party-up with friends to explore over 50 unique and beautifully rendered dungeons, towns, and secret levels.
•Unique Characters, Unique Stories- Players can choose from nine customizable characters, each their own unique story, play style and special skills to develop.
•Skill-Based PVP Combat- Elsword offers intense and strategic PvP with matchmaking and multiple competitive modes. Challenge your friends in matches of up to 8 players at a time.
•Customize like Crazy- Each character features multiple job changes, dozens of skills and endless opportunities for customization. Create or discover your personal look.
•Community Support- Constant game updates, item and content expansions, and special events including GM Livestream play sessions, community contests and PVP Tournaments are all a part of the Elsword experience.

This game has just gone downhill nonstop for the longest time. I don't even know where to begin, but I'll try...(Real long read, but want to make sure to steer you away from this terrible, terrible game)

First - Cashshop.

It's a free to play, sure, but it fails absolutely miserably at handling its cashshop. Power, not convenience, is for sale. Just take a look at what you'll want for a new character:

Do you want to use more than 4 skills at once? 9$Same with items? 6$Want a full costume (which greatly increases stats for PVP)? Anywhere from 15-32$Do you want skill notes (which greatly improve certain skills)? 1.50$ a piece, can use up to 6Want a powerful pet? 4$Want a powerful mount? 23$

That's 60$ for a huge power boost nearly unobtainable ingame. KOG is literally saying their game is so awesome that each character you make should cost the price of a big time triple A game (Spoilers: it's not); and that's not touching the hundreds of dollars you can spend just trying to get +11 broken powerful equipment.

Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Second - Balance.

Short version: There is none.

Long version: Oh boy.

KOG's idea of new content is a new, more broken character. That way people will go "AWESOME" and pay $60+ for cashshop goodies their new broken character will want.And then they release another, even more broken character, and repeat the loop for infinite money and zero real content.

Examples speak for themselves, each character gets progressively better stuff while the old ones are left in the dust. There's no balance to it when the newest character gets a vastly improved version of your skill.

Ignore skills for a second, as even the basic combos are horribly unbalanced. Eve in general is incapable of looping without spamming Tesla Shock, the worst KD reset skill in the game. Ara and Add have built in infinite loops with their basic attacks. If they catch you once, you will die without manabreak. That means anytime they catch you, it's a guranteed -100 MP for you, while Eve will end up doing scratch damage while -giving- you MP.

KOG can't even balance the most important and -simple- part of the game, what hope is there for the rest of it?

Third - Combat.

So there's PVE and PVP. Originally both took skill to be good at....Not anymore.With the last dungeon revamps we had ages ago, everything's been buffed with fake difficulty. Bosses ignore combos with length super armor while hitting chunks of your HP off, or get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like flat out invincibility/smaller hitboxes.Even the normal mobs are getting stoic counters to break free from your combos. Because ♥♥♥♥, what is this, a fighting/combo game? Oh, it is? Well ♥♥♥♥.The end result is that the game is becoming more and more like a maplefest game. No skill, just button mashing and potion chugging, spam your highest damage move whenever the CD is off.

So what about PVP?

AHAHAHAHAHA oh god...As should be evident with the cashshop and balance sections, PVP is ♥♥♥♥. Doesn't matter how skilled you are if you pick the wrong class and don't have as much cashshop as the other guy. They only need to be slightly competent to beat you.

But assuming you're equal in everything, class, cashshop, how's it go then?Laughably. This is a terrible excuse of a fighting game.

99% of PVP is catching, which is hitting your opponent first so you can combo them. The actual combos are brainless, you memorize a small string of button inputs and that's it. You repeat that forever and you know PVP. Catching is the only hard part, which naturally gives the edge to the players with more range. Guess who everyone picks.

Look at Add, newest character. Starts match with DP mode, spams nearly undodgable homing shot, teleports into you for combo, never runs out of DP unless he kills you enough. Nothing counters it.

But even ignoring Add, this game is still a joke compared to real fighting games with it's massive casual approach.

Fourth - Content

This is probably the final nail in the coffin for me. Elsword and KOG either don't understand, or more likely, couldn't give less of a ♥♥♥♥ of what the players want. We haven't had real new content in almost a year now. Our current endgame is summed up in 5 dungeons, the Secrets. You only run them to construct a Secret set, which takes at most a month. Then you have nothing else to do but PVP. Congrats, you won Elsword.This is yet another ploy to make you make another character and spend even more on cashshop, but considering how ♥♥♥♥ing boring it gets to play the same things over and over.. that won't last long.

You could try to argue PVP is the heart of the game, but as I've tried to make clear, the PVP is ♥♥♥♥. Even the rebalances are jokes; Season 3 revamped a total of 2 out of 26 classes, and completely ignored (and even NERFED) classes desperately in need of it, like Code: Nemesis again.

Not to mention, again, the complete lack of cashshop separation from power. Nothing nerfs costumes, +11 weapons, skill notes, extra skill slots when it comes to PVP. If you didn't pay cash, you will with your losses.

So yeah, you can't call this game "PVP focused" when it's as trashy as that.

Fifth - Regional differences

I mentioned them a bit already, but it goes a lot deeper. If you play Elsword in KR, it might actually be somewhat better overall. Anywhere else? ♥♥♥♥ you.

So what does NA get? Summed up in a few words: Cashshop events, cashshop releases, grind 70 dungeons for a minor accessory reward.

Meanwhile KR gets so many EXP boosting events, crossover events, fun little stuff like Bingo events, even a month long Harmony festival with cashshop rewards/costumes/exp boost/stamina boost/free healing items/and more all rolled into event that's still going on. We don't get anything like that anymore.

So tack that on top of the already increased EXP requirements and bland general events.

But wait, there's more! They even ♥♥♥♥ us over with updates!In KR, Henir and Secret revamps came with new level 70 sets, could trade your old 60 sets for them. In NA, ♥♥♥♥ you, all the work you put in the 60s? Do it again, make 70s from scratch with the vastly inferior 60s in dungeons designed for much stronger equipment.

We can't even get voice acting yet, we're still using KR's voice overs, while even the UK managed to get English dubbing.

Our GMs do make an effort to have silly mini-events, but they're powerless against the greedy grubby hands of KOG.

And this is all because the MMO market anywhere else aside from KR is pretty slim. KOG can tell us to eat ♥♥♥♥ and we have to, because we don't have many other options.Which is why I eagerly await DFO's return, KOG is about to burn their own ship with this ♥♥♥♥.

--------------------

So hopefully you've at least got the gist of that, and will now know why Elsword is so terrible and avoid it. Pleeease avoid it. KOG doesn't deserve a penny from you. Tell your friends, too, don't let people fall into their greasy little clutches.

If you want a fighter MMO that requires skill, combos, with minor cashshop influence, massive content, and is one of the top ten favorite MMOs in KR, a region FILLED with free MMOs... Then just wait.Dungeon Fighter will be back soon.

As someone with over 2000 hours clocked into this game, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is a pay to win game. You can travel through most of the game without cash, but if you wish to succeed at all in it, you will need cash. $10 for a repair scroll. $13 for a marriage (Note, the site only manages increments of 5, 10, 20 and 100 so anything odd numbered requires a larger than your desire purchase), as well as other 'interesting' payment methods. Such as if you wish to expedite your Hyper Skill work and just buy it, it's 550 KC, however, they don't dabble in "pay what you need", so you need to pay 10 just for that 550.

The PVP is by far one of the worst pvp systems I have ever had the sheer disgust of dealing with. It's almost 100% completely gear based. Someone with a highly reinforced weapon and armor 'will' plow through you with little effort. If it's not their gear ending your chances, it's their character. The balancing in this game only grows worse and worse each big update. Chung, the gun user, when built right, now has almost infinite Super Armor capabilities. Making him impossible to combo against. AND THEN IF THOSE 2 aren't stopping you, it's lag. Opponents randomly walking out of your combos, dropping away from them, with 0 care in the world.

MP Breaking is a method to escape combos, but there have been many times where I simply saw them walk away from my attack, no Super Armor, not even any damage, just walked away. It's so infuriating seeing hours of progress in your pvp rank get taken down in 1 to 2 matches NOT because you were outclassed, NOT because you were outskilled, but because the person had stronger gear than you, or lagged, or simply was better than the class you used.

The only redeeming thing this game has is it's community. You can literally trust a stranger with 2 Billion ED (Ingame currnecy) and actually receive your item you payed for. The reason why that's an issue is you can only trade in increments of 700 million, so you will end up accepting a trade twice to 3 times over giving them all your money before you receive your item. They could so easily run away, but they don't, they're trustworthy. Everyone there is kind, enjoyable, very, very weeaboo not gonna lie. But at least they were cool.

The gameplay itself is still enjoyable in dungeon runs, it's fast, fluid action slashing and destroying enemies. And that's enjoyable, or at least it is to me, for 3 level cap characters. But once you get that far, you have to start grinding and start paying to keep up, needing to buy Ores and garbage to make your weapon stronger so you can actually excel at your class. And that just wont happen if you run free the entire time.

With that said, I can't recommend this game to users that want an mmo they can really dive into. This game is worth a look at best, but barely worth truly getting into for the long run. The Pay to Win model becomes all the more apparent as you level up and the sense of feeling cheated out of victory as well as simply too weak (even when you have end-game gear) is a feeling games like this should not generate within their players. It's a sense of worthlessness that you can't ignore, and when you've reached such a feeling, you start questioning if the game is really worth your time, rather than if it's worth your time to achieve the stronger gear that you were just clobbered with.

Please note that most (I say most) negative reviews for this game are mere complaints by random players who whine and cry about their inability to play properly in PvP.

Let me list my problems with this game.

There is a significant pay-to-win issue in the game in the form of costumes and gear enhancements. Contrary to other free to play games, Elsword's costumes give stats and Gem Sockets which serve as significant portions of your character's over stat potentials, resulting in those without money being severely disadvantages from those who have spent money. More to the point, Equipment enhancements, due to their nature of exponentially increasing stats (From a 1% stat increase at +1, 15% stat increase at +6~9 and a +30% stat increase at +9~11). Hence, those who do not have the money and dedication to spend money for enhancements will be EXTREMELY DISADVANTAGED.

The PvP system of this game, contrary to most individual opinions, is genuinely well-thought out and generally well made. However, there is a significant balance issue with some characters, notably Sakra Devanam, Lunatic Psyker and Mastermind, each a class which was revamped or released very recently. Furthermore, the above problem with pay-to-win also comes into play- there is no gear normalisation. Hence, there is a very, very, VERY MAGNIFICENT(?) problem in the form of high-enhancement weapon wielding users being extremely advantaged in PvP situations.

However, this game's PvP is dependent on your ability to 'catch'- i.e., hitstun your opponent and land a series of hits in the form of combos, and repeat. Hence, it is potentially possible for any character at any level to defeat any character and any level, as long as one's skill level is higher than the other.

This is with the exception of Sakra Devanam as she will always, ALWAYS win regardless of circumstances if you are unable to catch her and defeat her in time. Yes, there is a living time-bomb in the form of a character in this game. A significant problem. Figuratively speaking.

The PvE system of this game serves as several dungeons in which you clear stages after stages of monsters, culminating to a generally difficult last-stage boss. However, after a while these bosses become walkovers, and it becomes boring to grind these after a while. Challenges exist in the form of solo Secret Dungeons and Henir Challenge modes. These however also become walkovers with sufficient enhancements.

Would I recommend this game? No. really, no. It's genuinely fun, yes. However, that's only once you reach the end game and you have sufficiently invested enough time and money in order to establish your character's power and place in the Elsword world. I genuinely do not recommend this game for anyone with insufficient time on their hands. I genuinely do not recommend this game for anyone young or with a volatile personality as this game will induce salt and rage at times, especially in PvP.

Warning! This review is long. Like, REALLY long. Do not click on this review unless you're willing to read a lot.

The gist:

This game is a trap. Stay away while you still can.

Intro:

If there's anything one should gather from my rather long playtime for this game, it's that this game is rather addicting. Don't get me wrong. There ARE some enjoyable bits in this game. I wouldn't have come back to this game after six months and rediscovered all the bad bits if there wasn't. But, yes, there are quite a few problems I have with this game that keep me from recommending it to anyone (or at least, anyone that I'd respect I know).

Gameplay (PvE):

If you've seen any of the trailers or read any other reviews for this game, you probably already know what the gameplay is like. You're at the leftmost side of a level, you go right, hitting anything that looks at you funny until they fall over, until you reach the end and get teleported to another, seemingly identical level. Well, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh. Some of the levels DO seem like they're set up rather well and the combat is rather engrossing. Armed with combos, special attacks, and super attacks (I know there aren't any moves called that, but whatever), the player can very easilly feel like he's a badass fighter in an action anime, running/flying around the screen hitting/slicing badies until finally blowing them up with a large explosion.

Until, of course, they realize the enemies are collectively about as threatening as a one-legged spider with brain damage. The enemies in this game are either legally blind or incredibly stupid because they only seem to acknowledge your presence when you're either right next to them or hitting them across their stupid heads. And when they do notice you, they perform their telegraphed attack once before either forgeting about you or walking slowly towards you. The exception to this behavior is the boss enemies, who have a better grasp on the idea of focussing on players but feel they need to more obviously telegraph their attacks to be fair.

Again, the levels do seem like they're well-made, so these problems with the enemies wouldn't seem so bad if one needed to visit each level only once. Is that the case? No. Levels will have to be visited three, and later even four, times before being allowed to the next one. And that's even assuming you're the right level, because otherwise the game just tells you to level up more, and since levelling up is so tedious, especially at higher levels, it won't be long before you're so familiar with levels that you could draw them on paper while blindfolded (this is assuming you're following the story, of course, and not just playing levels, but since levelling up takes so much grinding, especially later in the game, you might as well).

What also doesn't help with this tedium is the music. I've read some reviews where people have praised the soundtrack, calling it beautiful and epic and the like. And I have to say, yes, the music is rather wonderful...... for the first fifteen seconds anyways, because after that it just loops over again. Even the most beautiful tune in the world is going to sound annoying and overplayed after looping it every half a minute. Add this to the already grating grind settup and what would just be a minor annoyance to my ears suddenly turns into the music I hear in my nightmares.

Of course, a good way to break this tedium would be to play the levels in a party. Yes, this is an MMO after all, and thus you're given the option to play levels with up to three other players. In fact, the game actually encourages it (In a way that I'm not too fond of, but it honestly doesn't get me angry enough to talk about it.). Unfortunately, the only form of communication that the game provides is a text chat, which does not go well with the fast-paced action prevalent in the gameplay. As a result, playing in a party can usually be equated to a giant cluster♥♥♥♥ of screams, explosions, and screen shaking.

Overall, I'd give the whole PvE aspect of the game a miss.

Gameplay (PvP):

Now, in my opinion, this is where the game truly shines. One of the problems I had with PvE was the non-threatening enemies, and replacing them with one enemy who can actually outsmart you certainly fixes that. And the fast-paced gameplay is right at home in this mode, creating moments where the difference between victory and defeat lies within a nanosecond. I've had matches where both I and, I suspect at least, my opponent were sweating bullets throughout. Matches where I felt like I had to actually contact them and thank them for providing me with such an amazing fight.

What's unfortunate is that I can count the amount of matches like this that I've actually had in Elsword on one hand. It seems like for every opponent pitted against me at the same level as me, there were about fifty who were forty levels below me and fifty who were forty levels above me. This can be blamed on Elsword's rather bad matchmaking system.

So, to summarize on actual gameplay, look somewhere else.

Community:

I remember a review talking about how the people in this game are really friendly and playing in the community is fun and how it's so easy to make friends in this game. I can only assume that they were an extrovert and thus able to make friends anywhere else, because, for an introvert such as myself, the majority of the people that I seemed to get acquainted with were people that I wanted to reach through the computer screen and punch in the nose. But maybe I'm wrong on this. Maybe all those annoying players were just a small fraction of the player populace, and the majority of the players on this game are nice, decent individuals who don't get upset when you tell them that no, you don't want to friend them just because you said something remotely funny while in a level. But if that's the case, then it certainly isn't obvious to me.

Management:

While I don't seem to agree with them on some things, the creators behind this game do seem to take care of it. Bugs and issues are practically nonexistent, and updates are rather frequent. They also hold events for their players. No matter what day, there's always some kind of event going on in Elsword (which, to me, totally undermines the whole POINT of an event, but whatever.), where any player online during it can get a special item only available then and there.

It just feels as though they're focussed on all the wrong things. It seems like, for every update made to balance the game or fix issues, there's about twenty updates made to add a new costume to the in-game store.

Oh, yes, they have an in-game store, where things in it cost real money. Some items even have additional stat increases when worn. Now, debate can be made over whether or not these increases have any real impact on gameplay, but frankly, it's the fact that there are stat increases in the first place that pisses me off. There's more to be said about this feature, but I feel plenty of people have already harped on it enough that anything I say here would just be a rehash.

Closing:

This isn't a game meant to bring in new players. This is a game meant to keep old members mindly interested and not think about any other way they could be spending their time, turning the grindfest that is its gameplay into a reasonable sacrifice for getting this totally new accessory only available on a certain day and then doing the same exact thing the very next day. It becomes very easy for one to become addicted to the promise that is a free accessory. The only reason that I got out when I did was because I realized what was happening.

But others are not so lucky. Even today, there are those stuck in this endless loop with little hope for escape. Do not join them. Stay away while you can.

I've played this game for god knows how long (roughly 3 years). I feel I should post a review.

Jist:

Play one of 9 (soon to be 10) characters, with 3 different and slightly-to-very unique playstyles on each. With gameplay that is a mix between Smash Bro's, a traditional fighter, and traditional MMO.

So lets hit hard with the Pros and cons.

Pros:

•Core gameplay is extremely enjoyable•Variety variety variety•The aesthetic is very pleasing, even though the whole "play your manga" original tagline is nowhere to be seen

Cons:

•Pay2win•Pay2win•there is very little actual content•there is very little actual balancing. With the arrival of PvP Season 3 proving it in spades, good luck if you arent 70 and dont have a weapon +8 or above.

•Pay2win

Final word:

I love this game, I really do. I've spent minimal actual dollars on it, and made tons of friends. which is nice when you're a casual, but if you want to be a competative-to-hardcore player, have fun dropping several hundred++ dollars in this game.Please bare in mind, I still play this game, and love it. But I cannot recommend it due to flaws which are out of our hands.

Even though I gave this game a thumbs down, I hope to see you in Elrios one day.-ign: fetishfox

As a veteran of this game for almost four years, i can safely say this game does indeed have potential, but wastes it in alot of areas, the game requires necessary grinding for a good amount of skills, and the pay wall in this game is ENORMOUS. Unlike other games, Elsword locks both four skill slots off, and extra pages in the skill tree, both of which are nearly 20$ apiece. The game also does indeed have a problem with class balancing, and the developers refuse to listen to the american playerbase for opinions regarding buffs/nerfs, listening only to the korean playerbase. This game is indeed fun, but that will only last at most a few weeks before you start to become bored with the game or play with friends. If you do indeed like grinding, forced halting of your gaming due to the stamina system that is implemented, and severe balancing issues, than this is for you. Otherwise, i say skip out on Elsword, and look for some other game.

If you're willing to "invest" hundreds of hours in a game and can afford to pay at least $100 (or more) to have decent equipment, mounts and stats, then I recommend you to play this game. This game is not casual at all xD it will suck your life out, and you will feel good about it. Of course that would be if you're able to spend some cash on it. I'll write some pros and cons of this game that, as an ex-player of Elsword, noticed in all my in-game experience.

Pros:1. Nice move combinations.2. Epic music and visual detail.3. A VERY social game. Most of the community (non-pvp community) is not toxic, and if you play for a while you'll notice that to be successful in this game, you need to be on a guild, which is not a hard thing to do. 4. Constant updates and twitching.5. Great mod system. (GMs are great)6. Every character has something different to offer. They are fun to play for a while. You can have several characters to play with, with different gameplay and spells. You will be amazed, really.7. PvP system is fun. There's 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 matches. You can even prepare your own fights against your friends.8. Item trade system is great. 9. You can chat with everyone in the area you're currently are.

Cons:1. The player economy is broken. There's an in-game market were players can sell their items and let me tell you, everyone is greedy as hell, and inflation is constant in there. Wanna have in-game money? You need to either spend days farming for loot to sell or spend some bucks in the game. 2. The best items in the game require you to either play months to obtain them or to invest cash. And by the way, the very best items in the game are obtained through some sort of "raffle system": you buy "ice burners" and "fossil readers" that will randomly give you items. Most of them are trash, And yes, some dollars are required for this. 3. Very linear gameplay. Can get boring after a while.4. Some characters are unbalanced. Just play a PvP against an Add. Or let yourself get combo'ed by a LK.5. Item space is A JOKE. Space is very limited, and yes, you will get LOTS of valuable items through the game. Want some more space? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$6. Personal Message system was programmed by monkeys. You'll learn that whispering is the way to go. 7. Stamina. You'll see that it is a great issue during your Elsword journey. There's never enough stamina xD. But there's Unlimited stamina on weekends (yay)8. Freaking low drop rate for loot. Like, really low.9. THAT PVP COMMUNITY DOE.

Wanna be the very best? Like no one ever was? Wanna Crit like a champ? Spend cash and get those OP stats you search for. Jokes aside, you'll enjoy this game for a while, if you don't mind either having "below average" stats for a while or spending some $$$ on the game. Have fun with your cash... ehh, I mean in Elsword!

Everything in this game is so broken. The character arena gameplay is just so off balanced and the lvling of the dungeons is the same thing over and over again usualy to get boring at sometime. Everyone in the game is a butthurt little 12 year old. Arena is full of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ everywhere. Don't even waste your time with this game. It may have some good graphics and ♥♥♥♥ but it sucks...

I advise no one to play this unless you hardly get angry. You WILL get ♥♥♥♥♥ int he corner in PVP. You WILL get bored of dungeons and then go to the Arena and GET CORNER ♥♥♥♥♥. PVP IS UNBALANCED AS ♥♥♥♥ AND DUNGEONS GET BORING. PLZ BE CAREFUL IF YOU DECIDE TO PLACE THIS GAME BECAUSE YOU WILL BREAK YOUR LAPTOP!

Pros:+Pretty fun for the most part, espcially with a friend(s)+Currently 9 unique characters, each with different classes+Nice graphics+Combos are very different from character to character+It can be addicting once you have found a character class that you enjoy playing+Decent and friendly customer support

Cons:-VERY overpriced cash shop about $15-$30 for a costume (optional of cousre, but does give stats that help out slightly) or $23 for a mount, that will greatly help out in PVE-Some costumes are only available through "Ice Burners" which are $1 each, but are not even close to guarenteed to get you a single piece of the costume set. (you could spend $50 on ice burners and get nothing useful)-If you want more than 4 skills (which helps out alot) it's $9 -PVP is very unbalanced (incredibly gear based)-Most characters are also broken in their own way-Extremely grindy after level 45ish, made harder with the slow EXP gain-Stamina system, which limits how long you can play each day (however not too much of a problem later on)-Dreadful community- example: tons of ragers who will insult you in a very childlike manner over the stupidest of things-Dungeons become very boring and repetitive after a while-This version of elsword (North America) is behind with updates when compared to Korean elsword, but is ahead in updates compared to other versions at the same time-ED (the in game currency) is pretty useless, it can not buy you costumes or any useful, unless you want to trade with another player, which will cost you millions of ED

Do i still reccommend this game? Yes and no...This game does become highly addicting despite all of the negatives, you will always have something to work towards,which is what makes the game addicting, be it gear only obtainable through doing secret dungeons, wanting to grind your way towards level 70 or SSS rank in PVP. You could even try your luck in getting the best time in Henirs mode, which has most of the bosses from each region that you need to kill consecutively (does require good gear however.)

Finding a particular character and class that you enjoy in this will be hard to do as there are 9 characters with 3 classes each (that you can progress at later levels) and only a limited number of character slots (7 to start off with I think.) Once you do find that 1 class that you like, you will have a lot more fun because you obviously enjoy it.

Then again, Elsword is a free game and there is nothing stopping you from playing it and trying it for yourself. Most of what I said is debateable, but the only way to truly know wheter you will enjoy somethinge is like is to try it yourself. Who knows, maybe you will have a differenet opinion than I do . :)Overall i'd say it's worth your time if you are willing to spend a little bit of money on it later on.4.5/10... I guess

>Be invited to 6v6 by friend>"But I'm like level 21, m80">he shrugs it off like nothing >I join anyway>he promises that his friends will go easy on me>yay.jpeg>SUDDENLYLEVEL60STRAT>sudden realisation that ima be rektd>try best at game>did decent damage>doiwinyet.avi>get slashed once>dies>get unfriended by friend that tells me "Get. ♥♥♥ing. Good.">mfw I was then banned from his clan>puts down Elsword>goes back to Team Fortress 2>Go on server>Bunch of kids screaming>turn off computer>sit on bed>curled up>crying.mp45>mfw I never touched the game again11/10 Must play game to get rektd in. All Hail Raven

This game may look friendly, but the more you delve into it,the more you realize that it's just a façade.It's says it's "Free to Play", but it just have enough free content tolast you a couple of dungeons. Unless you pour cash in this game,you will have a hard time alone.Pay to unlock the B skill set. Pay to get another skill tree setup.They give you HALF OF THE STORAGE CAPACITY. Not even ONE PAGE. HALF.And don't get me started on the bank. If you think half was bad enough, wait to see the bank deposit,Oh, and that nice ice burner sets? Too bad, you need to be Filthy rich to collect just ONE of those. And that'sonly for ONE character.Oh yeah, you need to buy all of these things for every character you create. Funny, eh?Oh, you want to PvP? Too bad, Equipment and Costumes stats carry over to PvP. Skill is one part of the equation, andit's the little part. The moment you encounter an opponent with the same skill level, the one who wins is the one with the most overpowered gear. Not even kidding.And it's not even balanced. Want to be OP? Get the latest class. 90% of the time it's OP as hell.KoG it's not known for being great at balancing stuff.I come from Grand Chase, and even though it's a very old game, The PvP is balanced, because the Equipment stats don't carry over to PvP. The only thing that matters it's your skill.And Mounts? Pfffft, same as Ice Burner sets. Good Luck Trying to get that "Chocobo".Overall, I wouldn't recommend this game, unless you have good friends to play, or if you play a couple of hours a week.2/10Pros:-Nice Graphics-Aisha can be a Magic Girl-Elesis-VICTORY SWORD, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!-If you don't care for PvP, Jobs are actually entertaining

Cons:-Extremely overpriced stuff-Pay for everything-PvP is utter crap unless you pour unlimited money works-Phorus, Banthus, and Pong can ruin your sanity-If KoG could sell instant Lvl 70 upgrades, they would.-Stamina (I mean, maybe in Korea it's a good idea to limit the amount of time people invest in this game, but in NA it's actually a very bad move. I mean, look at Elsword EU)-Korean voices (If you're not a fan of asian things in general, you will hate the voices. Even though it was hinted that this could have an English Voiceover, it never materialized, AND GRAND CHASE HAD TONY OLIVER, WHY?! EVEN ELSWORD EU HAS ENGLISH VOICES)-Elsword it's an irritating brat-Job costumes are timed, and there's no way to buy them

Terrible and a waste of time. Don't bother spending any money on it because you won't stop after. PvP is flat out unbalanced and bad. There's potential but that'll never happen because KoG won't ever listen. Now if you excuse me, I'll be uninstalling for trash like this for some space that's worth having. :^3

While interesting intially, the game quickly becomes redundant and along with the minor glitches, lack of real customization... I just couldn't keep myself interested. If you like mindlessly grinding extremely easy content, then this might be the game for you, but I personally like more customization and uniqueness in mmos. There are other mmos that do what this game does better.